: ...was the opinion of the Westerners of the Mythworld,
: who obviously never had a chance to sit Balor down on
: a couch and psychoanalyze him. Given the relative
: restraint Balor showed during the Great War (i.e. he
: didn't torch the Province and surrounding regions as
: he had the Cath Bruig), I think it's quite possible
: that his intent was simply to reduce the world to
: chaos and barbarism, not to expunge all life from its
: surface. You can seek to destroy without seeking to
: permanently destroy everything, right? Some Fallen
: Lords, I grant you, think differently--like
: Soulblighter. But if Soulblighter could blow up the
: world by shattering the Cloudspine, why didn't Balor?
: Or Moagim? I don't think the Mythworld would continue
: to exist if the Levellers didn't show some restraint.
: It's just so much easier to destroy than repair that,
: after two or three cycles, the cumulative damage would
: produce worldwide extinction.
How can you possibly justify that this was the opinion of the Westerners? That is how Bungie has set up this whole world... They say on the back of the box that the Dark seeks not to conquer, but to destroy. There is no evidence pointing the opposite direction. Levellers showing restraint? Please spare me. The only reason the West wasnt completely and utterly devastated was because Alric lopped of Balor's head and tossed into a big hole in the ground before they got a chance to. Therefore, all your arguments in this paragraph only support me! ("I don't think the Mythworld would continue to exist if the Levellers didn't show some restraint. It's just so much easier to destroy than repair that, after two or three cycles, the cumulative damage would produce worldwide extinction." which is exactly what I'm saying)
: True, but in what sense did they "take" the
: West? The Myrkridia are, fundamentally, animals.
: They're unstoppable in a fight and they mow down
: whomever they happen to meet, but they don't have a
: battle plan, and they aren't intelligent enough to
: form a strategy for eliminating the human race. Think
: of other predators at the top of the food chain, like
: great white sharks. Just because they can't be beaten
: in a fight and they tend to attack anything that looks
: tasty doesn't mean that they can't coexist with other
: creatures. You just stay out of their way as much as
: possible. The West was peculiarly vulnerable to Krid
: attack because of its high level of civilization,
: which meant large stationary towns and villages, easy
: for Krids to decimate. A lower-tech, sparsely
: populated, nomadic people would find it easier to
: avoid the Krids, whose numbers would be kept in check
: by the usual environmental factors--lack of food,
: their tendency to try to kill each other when bored,
: etc. (We had a discussion on this subject a few months
: ago, if you want to look through the archives.)
Uhm... for a thousand years? Sharks are much less frequent than krids, for one thing, and for another, given that it takes at least 15 years for a human being to breed, and that if they stuck together a whole band would be wiped out together... no. Babies cry when when your tribe is hiding in the dark from huge, lumbering creatures, or they do at least once in forty generations.
: Furthermore, we know that Muirthemne survived the Krid
: attacks, unstoppable as the Myrkridia may be. This
: simply means that their inability to lose a battle
: doesn't apply to battles with large stone walls. When
: they saw the Krids coming, the citizens simply closed
: the gates and threw rocks at them until they got bored
: and went away. Which probably applies to the other
: large cities, too.
See, I WOULD concede this if a city could be self-supporting for a thousand years.
: Of course I expect you to believe that the Myrks attacked
: for a thousand years. It says so in the very same
: prologue where you got the bit about the Myrks never
: losing a battle. "Connacht was the first human in
: a thousand years to survive a battle with the
: Myrkridia."
Hyperbole and nothing more. It would be equally true if the krids were created, and attacked for the first time yesterday, and Connacht won his battles tomorrow.
: I dunno where you get that the Dark ages are much shorter
: than the Light ones, or that the Dark age is only one
: of battle rather than Dark rule. Both the MadJman of
: the TFL prologue and the sane Heron Guard of the
: Soulblighter Epilogue agree that the Dark holds
: definite dominion over the world during that period of
: the cycle.
I'd say the Dark was dominating pretty well when TFL was taking place. There was one city left - Madrigal, just like there was likely only Muirthemne left when Connacht arose.
: I'll stop defending GURPS when you pry it from my cold,
: dead--wait, that doesn't make sense. Start Again. I'll
: stop defending GURPS when Bungie says *anywhere* that
: GURPS is not a valid and acceptable source of
: information on the Myth universe. And stops
: rhapsodizing about it in its entry at the Bungie
: Store.
Heh, ok, I'm sure Bungie would say that when they're making money off it :P
-Ares
PS I wrote this all in one sitting and have no time to check over it. Will fill any holes later, but gotta go!
